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I Can Soar Video: Angie

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Angie is a bright, happy 5-year-old Korean-American girl, who has mild cerebral palsy due to her premature birth. When she began preschool at the age of 3, she was completely nonverbal. Angie’s inability to speak hindered her ability to communicate with her family members, her teachers, and her classmates and also hindered her ability to learn and develop literacy skills. She needed to find a way to communicate her thoughts and ideas, allowing her to become an active and engaged participant in her classroom and to gain access to the general education curriculum at her school. Angie’s teacher contacted the county’s Interdisciplinary Augmentative Communication and Technology Team (InterACT) for assistance in addressing Angie’s communication needs. The InterACT team, which operates at the county level, includes speech pathologists, special education teachers, occupational therapists, and support personnel who are all trained in assistive technology and augmentative communication. The role of the InterACT team is to provide consultation to school staff in the district in the process of selecting and using assistive technology-in particular, augmentative communication systems. The success of the InterACT team is due in great part to the extent to which they support stakeholder collaboration, by involving every-one who works with Angie in the decisionmaking process. InterACT team staff work very closely with Angie’s teachers and her family members on an ongoing basis, to ensure that the assistive technology she uses continues to meet her needs. For example, InterACT staff work closely with Angie’s teachers to make sure that her augmentative communication system includes the vocabulary that Angie needs in order to progress with her language development and have access to the general education curriculum. Staff also work closely with Angie’s family members to make sure that her system includes the vocabulary that Angie needs in order to communicate and function independently at home. Angie’s parents, siblings, and educators all work together to monitor her progress, remaining focused on her learning needs and what it will take for her to meet those needs.

Monitoring impact

"At the very beginning of the year Angie was very fearful about a lot of things and she would easily cry.and need to be comforted and calmed down.[now] you seldom find Angie fearful about anything. As a matter of fact, every time I walk into the room Angie has me come over to her. ‘Come, come here, see what I’m doing.’ And there is an independence that has grown in her.I’ve seen a tremendous progression in the growth of her independence from the beginning." Judy Theiss, principal What makes the collaborative relationship between the professionals who work with Angie and her family members especially critical is the cultural differences between them. Angie’s parents speak Korean, which has raised additional challenges with respect to her language development needs. Angie’s teachers and staff on the InterACT team work with her parents and her sister to program specific Korean phrases into her communication device so that she can participate actively in her family life at home. In addition, Angie’s teachers recognize the need to acknowledge diversity and be sensitive to the differences between American and Korean cultures, specifically with respect to the collaborative relationship between parents and professionals. Angie’s teachers note that in many cases, Korean Americans tend to show a great deference to professionals, and it is important that they be reminded that they do play just as important a role in Angie’s education. In Angie’s school district, county leadership has been involved in an ongoing effort to build capacity in the area of assistive technology. The InterACT team has been in existence since 1983 and has grown tremendously over the years in terms of its staff, its expertise, and the role it plays in providing support for students with disabilities throughout the district. When the InterACT team was first created, it consisted of one person assigned half a day a week, and it has now grown to comprise a 13-member staff.

Acknowledging diversity

"It’s very important for these children to be able to communicate in all settings.so the devices do go home with the children.. They can communicate with their siblings, their parents. Angie’s family is very strongly connected to the Korean community with lots of parties and church gatherings. Angie does use her device to be able to participate fully." Kathleen Abram, InterACT team director InterACT is now a line item in the district budget, which includes support for staff, assistive technology equipment, and any other materials necessary to appropriately support the needs of the children in the district. Assistive technology has become an ingrained part of special education services. In fact, Angie’s kindergarten class includes 5 other students who use augmentative communication systems, and with the support of the InterACT team, her teacher has developed the expertise required to program and troubleshoot the assistive technology herself. Another key to Angie’s success has been leadership. Professionals working in Angie’s school district are committed to making assistive technology work, and are united under a common vision. In particular, the principal at Angie’s school plays a critical role in advocating for the use of assistive technology with children with disabilities and in making sure that the necessary resources and supports are there for students, teachers, and staff. Leadership, capacity, and teamwork are only a few of the many factors that have made Angie’s experience with assistive technology a success. Because of the support she receives, Angie’s communication and language development skills have greatly improved, setting her on a path towards greater independence in her life at school and at home.